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Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms that recur across this site. These words are used loosely and inconsistently in the real world; the definitions below describe how each is most commonly meant in the context of regional commissions and regional development.

Appropriation

Money that a legislature formally sets aside for a body or program to spend. Most federal commissions depend on an annual appropriation; without it, a commission can remain authorised in law but unable to fund projects.

Authorisation

A law that creates a body or program and permits it to exist and spend up to a set limit. Authorisation is separate from appropriation: a commission can be authorised but receive no actual money, leaving it dormant.

Comprehensive economic development strategy (CEDS)

A regionally produced plan analysing a region's economy and setting priority projects. Having a current strategy is often a precondition for receiving federal economic-development grants.

Council of governments (COG)

A voluntary association of neighbouring local governments that plan and sometimes deliver services together at a regional scale, governed by a board of local elected officials.

Co-chair

In a federal-state commission, one of the leaders who share governance. The federal co-chair represents the national government; the states' co-chair is chosen from among the member governors.

Development district

A multi-county body that prepares regional economic-development strategy and helps local projects qualify for and manage grants. Often the same organisation as a regional planning commission or COG.

Distressed area

A place designated as economically lagging by measures such as income, poverty, and unemployment. Many programs concentrate funds on distressed areas within a wider region.

Federal-state partnership

A governance model in which a national government and several state governments jointly run a body, typically needing agreement from both sides to act. The signature structure of the large federal regional commissions.

Leverage

The private or other investment attracted by each public dollar spent. A common, if imperfect, measure of whether a development investment is drawing in additional money.

Local development district (LDD)

A multi-county sub-unit through which some federal commissions deliver grants and technical assistance on the ground, close to the communities served.

Metropolitan planning organisation (MPO)

A body required by national law for every urbanised area of 50,000 or more people to carry out transportation planning, without which federal transport funds cannot be spent in the area.

Place-based policy

An approach that targets public help at particular places rather than at individuals or industries regardless of location. Regional commissions are a leading institutional example.

Regional commission

A body created to plan, coordinate, and invest across a defined multi-jurisdiction region. Used both for large federal-state partnerships and for smaller state-chartered planning bodies.

Regional council

A general term for a body of member local governments cooperating at a regional scale; frequently interchangeable with council of governments and regional planning commission.

Regional planning commission

A body that carries out land-use, transportation, and environmental planning for a region; often the same organisation as a development district under a different name.

Reauthorisation

A renewal of an expiring authorisation, frequently used to update a body's funding ceiling, territory, or powers. Federal commissions are periodically reauthorised.

Transportation improvement program (TIP)

A short-term, funded list of transportation projects produced by an MPO, drawn from its longer-range plan.